The Florida, which had an increase in draft and a decrease in stability due to the change of guns, couldn't hold it up first, and the battleship Caesar was the right one, don't look at the fact that it was Germany's first-class super dreadnought, but the armor performance was better, and at the same time the artillery was also slightly advantageous, and coupled with the gap in the level of the two sides, after a period of firefighting, the Florida finally couldn't hold on!

At a distance of 12 km, the Caesar's 8 guns were no worse than the Florida's 10 14-inch guns, and the hit rate was even higher than that of the opponent. After the two sides exchanged greetings for half an hour, the Florida's side-chord main armor belt was pierced at least four times, and one of the shells fell into the boiler compartment, but due to the shock problem, it did not explode, and only 2 boilers were destroyed. Another 3 shells destroyed part of the flue and several secondary guns. And the beginning and tail were beaten into a sieve by the dense rain of bullets. The Caesar on the opposite side was also uncomfortable, the bow and tail parts of the hull were pierced many times, but because the main armor belt was quite strong, only two cracks were punched, so the problem was not very big.

What ultimately led to the collapse of the Florida was a shell that hit the upper ammunition depot of the No. 2 turret...... The shell did not penetrate the horizontal armor above the ammunition bay, but the severe impact caused the horizontal armor to crack underneath. The collision and explosion gave these fragments an extremely high muzzle velocity, and these fragments inevitably sparked when they hit the ammunition below, and the propellant of the American artillery was a silk medicine pack! It all came so suddenly that the American officers and soldiers were engulfed in raging flames before they could react! A flash of fire shot from the top of the No. 2 turret, accompanied by a series of explosions and metal breaks, and the first American super-dreadnought began to tremble, and the entire bow twisted and shook under the force of the explosion and finally broke off from the hull. A large amount of seawater poured into the breach, and in less than 1 minute, the bow of the ship sank into the sea, and the remaining hull was plunged into the sea due to the explosion and excessive water ingress. The USS Florida sank, the first capital ship lost by the US Navy, but definitely not the last!. …。

Just when the Germans were cheering for the sinking of another Imperial battleship. Suddenly. A loud bang came from behind him, and a huge fireball suddenly erupted from the bottom of the No. 1 turret of the Nassau-class battleship Westphalia, which was located at the tail of the battle line, and billowing smoke quickly poured out of the breach and spread in all directions. The German damage control team quickly rushed to the point where the bullet was hit. And to put out the fire as much as possible, and the officers and soldiers in the ammunition depot immediately lowered the fire door. "God bless Germany!" A German soldier took out the cross around his neck and kissed it fiercely! The trembling body and staccato voice told the others how dangerous this moment was, and that if it was a little slow, it could lead to catastrophic consequences. "The turret is completely ruined, but thankfully it didn't explode." An officer wiped a cold sweat as he looked at the steel plate torn by the explosion.

And just when everyone thought it was over. When the crisis was over, another shell from the Pennsylvania accidentally hit the Westphalia's No. 2 turret mount! Just as the Germans breathed a sigh of relief, the 14-inch shell successfully penetrated the opponent's gun mount and detonated all the ammunition inside! This time the good fortune of the Germans finally came to an end, and the blast doors of the ammunition depot did not block the hundreds of kilograms of shrapnel coming at high speed! Pieces of shrapnel hammered like hammers on the fire door, and finally knocked it open! Before the German officers and men at the ammunition depot in the lower part of turret No. 2 could fill the water with water, they saw a fire dragon rushing down from the ceiling. And devoured everything!. …。

The Westphalia was dragged upwards as if by a raised hand. The entire hull seemed to be out of the water, and then slammed into the sea, the explosion slicing the entire hull in half, and flames and smoke poured out through the cracks. After a series of explosions, Germany's first dreadnought finally sank into the rolling waves. "It's 4 to 4 now." Scheer looked at the battleship Westphalia that was gradually disappearing into the sea, and said calmly. …。

The battle went on until this time. The German High Seas Fleet had already suffered even worse losses than the previous engagement, and even the Bismarck-class battleship No. 4, Saxony, was doomed to not return to the port of Kiel, although he was still afloat, but he had lost power, and the battleship was too much to tow. The end result can only be abandoned. The Americans' counterattack was very tenacious, although their artillery skills were not superb, but they still relied on a large number of artillery to block the opponent's attack.

"Our attack is still a little bit worse. For those battleships of the United States, which were so well defended, that we could only suppress them and not completely destroy them, a very powerless feeling came over me. Unless the Hipper fleet can pull out its hand to help us, it will be difficult for us to achieve a decisive victory. Just as I was considering whether to retreat, a telegram gave me the courage to continue fighting. Our Air Force is finally here! Just when Scheer felt that the current situation of the war could be described as chicken, this telegram was undoubtedly the gospel of St. Milgar! Think of the Elector, who died under a British torpedo machine...... Schell would very much like to know what kind of results the German naval aviation could achieve today! Although German aircraft could not carry torpedoes with great lethality to battleships, bombshells of more than 300 kilograms still posed a certain threat to these warships. And the most favorable condition was that the British, it seems, did not take seaplane carriers with them. That is, the opposing side does not have air power to interfere with the air raid actions of bombers! . …。

"It's a German plane!" The Pennsylvania, which was fighting, was the first to spot the German twin-engine bombers entering the battlefield from the northeast, and these guys painted with a huge iron cross had a black thing hanging under the belly of the plane, although it was far away, but the Americans could vaguely distinguish that this thing was not a torpedo but a bomb. "It seems, maybe, that the threat isn't too great, right?" Sims looked at the German bombers that were getting closer and closer, and said with some trepidation. The first wave, about 40 bombers, began to cut into the battlefield from the rear of the American fleet. Their first target was the battleship Arizona, which was fighting the King, Scheer's main flagship! The American battleship was right in the middle of the battle line, and there was much debate about why the Germans found this battleship and not the others.

"The opposing frigates are concentrated in the front, they are equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft guns or machine guns, which is very bad for us, and at this time we saw that there is a battleship that is fighting with the main flagship of the fleet, so we decided to help Commander Scheer solve this problem first." A Luftwaffe major who participated in the naval battle said. Well, in the final analysis, it is a sentence to help leaders solve difficulties! It's the same to sink a battleship, and you helped the fleet commander solve the difficulties, and people must be happy! Although it is difficult to say whether this was a sycophant or not, after the fact, Schell did strongly support the construction of naval aviation. And this major also became the first German aircraft carrier captain. Does it matter? No one knows ..........

And the German Colonel Bowman, who led the team at the beginning, explained, "I thought he was a New Mexico-class battleship, and he was the biggest threat to the main fleet, so we decided to destroy this guy with the greatest threat first!" "From above, this battleship is indeed very similar to the New Mexico, so this battleship has become the first target of the Luftwaffe attack instead of Sims! These two explanations were the most popular at the time.

"Arizona will die under the bombs of bombers, this is fate, there is no escape." This third explanation has only circulated in a small range, Chinese President Xu Jie once said this quite puzzling sentence after learning that the Arizona died at the hands of a bomber in the Norwegian naval battle, and everyone else present at the time thought it was a joke, but looking at Xu Jie's serious expression, it seemed that it was really like that, and the final result was ineffective, and the reason may only be known to Xu Jie himself! (Book lovers who want to know can Baidu Pearl Harbor.) ）…。

In the face of the Luftwaffe that swooped over like a vulture, the Arizona immediately prepared for air defense operations, but in the medium-range engagement, the secondary guns were almost knocked out, not to mention most of the various anti-aircraft guns placed in the open air, and according to the intelligence of the British, the Luftwaffe did not seem to have the ability to attack ships, so the defense against aircraft was not strong, well, the British were not entirely wrong, it is true that you can't throw aviation torpedoes. And when these bombers, carrying bombs in shallow dives and carrying out glide bombing, began to attack...... The Arizona's only option was to dodge! The battleship twisted its massive hull and began to turn to evade, but because there was too much water in the previous engagement, the battleship moved a little slower、.........。

But even so, the first round of bombing by the Luftwaffe can only be described as tragic and urgent, and only one bomb was hit by six twin-engine bombers in shallow dive bombing, and this 350kg high-explosive bomb fell directly on the stern of the Arizona. After directly penetrating several decks and finally exploding above the propeller shaft, more than 200 kilograms of picric acid explosives placed in the bomb were ignited by the action of the fuse, and a huge fireball rose from the stern of the ship, followed by countless flames and air currents flying into the air, and even formed a small mushroom cloud. "At this moment, I thought it was the other side's ammunition depot that exploded. As a result, if you look at the wrong place, then there should be no ammunition at all. ”

The charge of a 14-inch armor-piercing bullet is about 15.6kg, the charge of a 14-inch high-explosive bomb is about 38.1kg, and the charge of the bomb just hit is more than 200 kg, which is almost equivalent to the charge of six 14-inch high-explosive shells, and the attack is still on the stern of the weakly protected, this blow is naturally very fatal, and the entire hull of the Arizona seems to be shaken by shock. The propeller shaft under the hit point was destroyed by the shock, and the other also had some problems, and the entire battleship was almost completely deprived of power